Need a Last-Minute Costume? Easy & Cheap DIY Baby Shark Family
This post will show you how to make DIY shark family Halloween costumes in less than an hour! If your kids have loved the baby shark hit as much as ours have, these DIY costumes are perfect and easy.
If there was ever a song of the summer for our family, it was this year.
It wasn’t a Taylor Swift song or even a pop hit.
Its popularity grew on YouTube – and it’s called… Baby Shark.
Our daughter listened to it all summer, bopping her head and attempting to sing the new sounds.
Our preschooler giggled at the lyrics and mimicked the dance – and thought it was hysterical that Grandma and Grandpa lyrics were in the song. We spent some of the summer visiting the kids’ Grandma and Grandpa at the beach.
So this year for our family costumes, baby shark seemed to fit the bill.
This costume was super easy to make – even easier than my diaper box fire truck!
The best part?
This baby shark family costume involves no sewing! Just a trusty mama (or papa) with a glue gun!
How to Make No-Sew Shark Family Halloween Costumes
I can’t emphasize enough just how simple these costumes were to make. I make family Halloween costumes every year, and this took me the least time.
And, I actually didn’t make these the same day as Halloween, as I did in the past!
You’ll only need a few materials, and you might already have some of them. I bought some hoodies and hats, but everything else I had.
And, the hoodies and hats can be reused if you use the tip below!
Choosing the Clothes for the DIY Shark Costume
First, you’ll want to think about clothes. Gray is such a popular color that most people already have gray hoodies or sweatshirts. You’ll want to make sure you have sweatpants or joggers that are the same shade of gray as your sweatshirt, so your shark has a cohesive look.
Also, if you have more blue clothes, you can definitely be a blue shark. That’s a thing 🙂
Next, I ordered some gear from Shirts In Bulk. They have really great prices and tons of color options. I ordered all of my Sesame Street t-shirts from them, and they worked out perfectly. I’ll link the exact pieces that we ordered below.
Their shipping is super quick – usually two-day, so you definitely have time before Halloween to make these.
Gathering a Few Materials for the DIY Sharks
In the meantime, you can gather the rest of your materials. It’s basically felt, hot glue, a piece of cardboard or card stock, and scissors. For felt, I used several white sheets and a little bit of black and blue.
Also, if you want to reuse your shirt or hats, definitely check out these adhesive glue spots called Zots. They give a really good stick and they can easily be removed after.
For our costumes, I glued down the kids’ things (so their costumes wouldn’t fall apart at school), but I used Zots for my husband’s and mine. That way, we could still use our hoodies again.
Once your new clothes come, you’ll probably want to wash them first. Then, you’re all set!
Cutting and Gluing the Felt Pieces
From start to finish, this step took about 45 minutes for all four costumes.
Starting with the DIY Shark Costume Hat
I started by laying out my first article of clothing, which was the hat.
I used gray winter hats for the kids (it’s usually cold on Halloween here) that I got from Shirts in Bulk for a few bucks.
For my husband and me, I used two darker gray ball caps, which were also a Shirts In Bulk find.
DIY Shark Eyes
I cut two white circles for the eyes. Then two smaller blue circles and then two small black circles.Â
If you are worried about perfect circles, find things around you to trace.
I glued these three layers together for the eyes.
Then, I used Zots, the adhesive glue dots, to place them on the hat.
Remember the knit hats will stretch, so the eyes will looker farther apart when the hat is on.
Using the Zots gave me the opportunity to move the eyes around while my son was modeling (without the permanence of them being glued down).
Once I had the eyes placed where I wanted them, I did use hot glue to attach them well (on the kids’ hats).
DIY Shark Teeth
Next up were the teeth!
I use two strips of white felt about an inch or two wide. Then, I made one angled cut after another to easily clip them into triangles.
If kids are helping you with the costumes, the teeth is a great job to delegate to them, as long as their kiddie scissors will go through the felt.
Then flip about an inch of the knit hat inside out.
You’ll glue the teeth to the inside. Start putting hot glue on the hat (or the teeth) and stick them down.
If you are using ball caps, you’ll glue the teeth to the inside of the hat’s brim.
DIY Shark Fin
Once the teeth and eyes are on, you just need a fin.
I wanted to make sure my fin didn’t flap, so instead of just using felt, I glued card stock inside of the felt.
This will keep the fin sticking out. The card stock that I used was pretty thin, but it did the job perfectly.
So first, I cut a basic fin shape out of the brown card stock that I had.
Then, I glued white felt to each side of it.
Make sure you used enough glue on the edges so your felt doesn’t flap or so your card stock doesn’t show.
Then, you’ll carefully line the back of your hat with a thick line of hot glue and stick the fin onto the hat.
Hold it carefully (or rest it on something upright) while it dries. You might want to put a little extra glue on the beginning and end.
The hat is done!!
DIY Shark Belly
Last, you can cut a big oval out of white felt and stick this to the belly of your sweatshirts or hoodies.
Again, use Zots to make it a non-permanent stick.
That’s it!
It’s a very simple costume, right?!
Time and Cost of the DIY Shark Costumes
It took about 45 minutes to make all four of the costumes.
The cost was just in clothing, as I had the felt and hot glue. Super inexpensive, right?!
With these costumes, your family will be all set to trick or treat on Halloween as the infamous shark family from the baby shark youtube hit!
And if I know my husband, he will definitely be playing the song from his pocket 🙂
P.S. I totally glued my son’s fin upside down (see below)
DIY Baby Shark Halloween Costumes for the Family
Here's an easy print-out sheet of how to make these DIY shark family Halloween costumes.
Materials
Tools
Instructions
- Lay out everyone's outfits, so you know you have everything you need.
- Start cutting out eyes. Cut white circles for the eyes, along with blue and black circles for the inside (see pic).
- Glue eyes to the caps. Use Zots (optional) to place them.
- Cut white triangles for the teeth. Fold the inside of the hat up (or for ball caps, flip the cap over). Glue the teeth to the inside and then flip back.
- Cut a fin out of cardboard or cardstock. Cover this with white felt on both sides, and then glue down.
- Attach the fin to the hat by placing a thick line of hot glue on the back of the hat or cap. Hold in place until it dries.
- Cut a white circle for the bellies and glue or tape down. (Tape if you want to make it non-permanent).
